Philip Eil

About Philip Eil

I\'m a freelance journalist based in my hometown: Providence, Rhode Island. My debut book,…

Experience

1. Author

   Steerforth Press

   Apr 2021 — Present

   I secured a contract with Steerforth to write a nonfiction book about one of my father’s medical school classmates, Dr. Paul Volkman, who is currently serving four consecutive life terms in federal prison for prescription drug-dealing. As part of my reporting for this project, which began in 2009, I have interviewed more than 100 people across 19 states, and also, with the help of the Rhode Island ACLU, filed a successful Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Drug Enforcement Administration, for unreleased evidence from Volkman’s trial. In August 2017, I published a version of the story in Cincinnati Magazine, “The Pill Mill that Ravaged Portsmouth,” which received an award from the local chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. The book -\"Prescription for Pain: How a Once-Promising Doctor Became the \'Pill Mill Killer\'\"- was released on April 9, 2024.The Columbus Dispatch called the book \"a riveting true-crime page-turner.\" The Boston Globe called it \"exhaustively reported.\" And BookPage wrote,\"With Prescription for Pain, Eil joins the ranks of investigative journalists like Sam Quinones (Dreamland), Patrick Radden Keefe (Empire of Pain) and Beth Macy (Dopesick), adding a crucial piece of the puzzle to understanding an epidemic that continues to arrest the nation.\"

Education

• University of Michigan

  Bachelor's degree, English

  2003 — 2007

• Columbia University

  MFA, Nonfiction Writing

  2009 — 2011

Skills

• Microsoft Office
• Teaching
• Writing
• Editing
• Research